Mental health charity Mind Medicine Australia (MMA) calls for and strongly supports all recommendations to form a Mental Health Innovation Taskforce to be immediately established. This must be established now to guide the government in planning the next steps to manage the increasing mental health pandemic triggered by Covid-19 and the recent bushfires tragedy.

We live in one of the wealthiest countries and we have one of the best medical systems in the World. Yet despite the high calibre of our medical practitioners, and the enormous associated system costs, we also have one of the highest rates of mental illness in the World. These rates are increasing exponentially now.

Experts warn that a long-term mental health pandemic is looming in Australia that will potentially surpass the physical health impacts of the coronavirus. Frontline charities are suggesting that the effects of the current pandemic on mental illness could be “seven times” worse than the spike in mental illness caused by the recent bushfires.